Lilim

After committing a desperate act of violence to escape their abusive home, Issa (Heaven Peralejo) absconds with her younger brother Tomas to a desolate orphanage in the woods. Run by an obscure sect of nuns, it seems an ideal sanctuary at first. Yet the nuns’ increasingly strange behavior and ominous hazing from some of the other kids are exacerbated by sinister things that go bump in the night throughout this old dark house. Issa’s hopes of finding Tomas a new home on her path to redemption are soon dashed by fear for their lives. Mikhail Red (Birdshot, NYAFF 2017) proves a master of horror with this vicious, slow-burn tale of immorality that goes for the jugular. Set in 1983, Mikhail’s brother Nikolas Red’s incisive and multilayered script is informed by the Philippines’ not-too-distant past of political strife and manifested by a litany of escalating spine-chilling terrors.